Teen suffers mental outburst due to infection after being scratched by his cat

The journal «Journal of Central Nervous System Diseases» publishes a strange case reported by a hospital in the United States. It is about a teenager who begins to suffer from overnight psychotic episodes (hallucinations, delusions, suicide and homicide) without a history of mental illness.

The 14-year-old boy was described as “socially, athletically and academically active” and in fairly good health. But in October 2015, he suddenly started showing some symptoms of problems with your mental health, He believed that he was “the wicked and cursed son of Satan” and had suicidal thoughts because he was afraid of killing his family and friends. also developed a large number of phobias And she was afraid that her family cat might want to kill her.

it was hospitalization emergency in a psychiatric unit, under drug treatment antipsychotic, However, the episodes continued for another 18 months.

During an examination, a doctor noticed that the boy had some kind of stretch marks on his thighs and armpits. With that clue, he started investigating whether he too had the infection.

given analysis positive for Bartonella henselaea type of bacteria associated with an infection often contracted by a bite or cat Scratch, Well, the minor’s family lived with two adopted stray cats.

As soon as infection The bacterial infection was treated with antibiotics, the teenager’s mental health recovered completely. doctors believed the bacteria was mental break trigger,

Pediatric acute onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) is a clinical diagnosis given to children in whom there is a sudden and sudden development of neuropsychiatric symptoms. The cause of PANS is unknown in most cases, but it is believed to be caused by infection, metabolic disturbances, and other inflammatory reactions.